


One Call Away

by halfsweet



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Fluff, Friendship/Love, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 23:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5763040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfsweet/pseuds/halfsweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whenever Brendon needs Patrick, Patrick always comes to his aid. So, he makes a vow to himself that if Patrick ever needs him, he'll do the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Call Away

**Author's Note:**

> Are you ready to read another Brentrick from me? lol
> 
> I had this idea for a month, but I was too lazy to type it out then. Hope you enjoy this one!
> 
> Title and story inspired by Charlie Puth's One Call Away.
> 
> (Also dedicated to those whom I have scarred with my previous Brentrick fic lmao)

Brendon was five when he and his family moved into a new town. He never had a problem of making new friends. He was friendly with everyone, but he was afraid of people older than him though, except those who were old enough to be his parents, so he tried to avoid associating with them.

But when his new neighbour- a boy 3 years older than him, asked for his name and hung out with him, Brendon decided that the boy was pretty cool.

_"Hi! You must be our new neighbour! I'm Patrick! What's your name?"_

They hung out almost every day, and even when Brendon enrolled into high school, even when Brendon was just a freshman and Patrick was already a senior, Patrick still greeted him whenever they see one another.

Brendon might or might not have developed a crush on his neighbour.

So when school was over for the year and Patrick was packing up to go to college, Brendon felt like his heart was torn into two.

"But Pat _riiiiick_! Who's going to watch movies with me? Who's going to listen to me complain about homeworks and classes and teachers and-"

Brendon is cut off when Patrick pulls him into a bear hug, laughing. "I'm only one call away, Bren."

"But you won't be here, like, _physically_!" Brendon protests and pulls away from Patrick, huffing and crossing his arms, then uncrossing them. "Who's going to be my friend?"

"Don't be silly, you dork," Patrick scoffs at him, hitting him with his backpack before placing it in the car. "You have a lot of friends here."

"Yeah," Brendon mumbles dejectedly as he stares at the last of Patrick's bags going into the car. "But none of them are you."

Patrick pulls him into another hug, and Brendon wraps his arms around the older boy, pretending that the droplets of water on his face are just from the sky, even though it's shining brightly outside.

"M'gonna miss you, Patrick…" Brendon whispers into Patrick's shoulder.

"I mean it, Bren," Patrick whispers back, "I'm only one call away, and I'll be there."

They stay that way for a few more minutes until Patrick has to go. Brendon can only watch as the car drives away, getting smaller before disappearing from his vision. His mother pats him on the shoulder, and Brendon wipes the rainwater off of his face- _they're not tears! I wasn't crying!_ \- before following his mother back to their house.

When school comes on Monday, Brendon doesn't know how he'll make it through the rest of his high school year without Patrick.

"Patrick?"

_"Something wrong, Bren?"_

"Nothing, I just miss you."

_"It's only been a day!"_

The sound of Patrick's laughter travels through his phone and into his ear. Brendon smiles at the sound, then proceeds to tell Patrick about his day before he starts to get sleepy. They say a quick goodbye to each other, and Brendon falls asleep that night with a smile.

The smile changes into a blinding grin when Patrick shows up at his house the next weekend with a box of pizza.

"I heard someone misses me?"

-

Brendon rolls over in his bed, groaning when his stomach makes a loud growling noise. He closes his eyes and prays that his hunger will go away after he takes a nap. After minutes of tossing and turning in his bed, he sits up with a huff and groans again.

"Go get something to eat, dude," his roommate says to him. "I think the cafeteria still has something left."

"The cafeteria's too far," Brendon whines and lies back down on his bed. And he doesn't have much money either, most of them being spent on his text books, which is stupid, because the professors keep on insisting them to buy the books when they only use them once throughout the whole semester.

He should've just borrowed one at the library.

He spots his phone next to his pillow and presses speed dial without thinking. When he finally realizes, he shrugs to himself and waits for the dial to ring.

_"Bren!"_

"Pat _riiiiiick_!" Brendon drawls his name out in a whine. "Patrick, I'm hungry and I can't sleep and I have no money and the cafeteria is far-"

_"Dork. Want me to come get you and find a place to eat? My treat."_

"You're my beacon of light, Patrick Stumph. I love you."

_"Get ready, you dork. I'm coming in twenty. Love you too."_

Brendon hides his face in his pillow and grins, his whole body heating up at Patrick's words. "Love you three."

Patrick laughs on the other line before saying goodbye and ending the call. Brendon rolls over on his back and stares up at the ceiling, a smile on his face. Sure, Patrick doesn't mean it like the way Brendon wants him to, but he can pretend. He's done it for years anyway.

"You're smitten."

Brendon looks at his smirking roommate and grins at him. "When you meet him, I swear to God you'll _worship_ the ground he walks on. He's fucking awesome, I tell you. He knows how to play guitar and sing and-"

As Brendon continues to chatter with his roommate, he changes into his clean clothes before Patrick arrives. He needs to look nice if he's going out with Patrick. Brendon's train of thought halts suddenly. He's going out with Patrick. _He's going on a date with Patrick._

He rummages through his closet again for a nicer and cleaner shirt, and finds a button-up. After sniffing it a few times and deeming it wearable enough, he slips on the button-up and looks at his reflection in the mirror, fixing his hair.

"-but he's just _so bad_ at Mario Kart and this one time, he got mad at me for letting him win, but he looked so adorable when he's angry so I did it again and-"

"Dude," his roommate interrupts him, voice tinged in amusement. "Ask him out already. You'll be doing the world a favour."

Before he can retort with something, his phone rings, and Brendon scrambles to get his phone.

"Patrick!"

_"Hey, I'm in front of your dorm. Get your ass down here."_

Brendon waves a goodbye to his roommate and exits the room. "Missed my ass, huh?"

_"Isn't it the other way around?"_

Brendon pauses in his step and shakes his head at the images that enter his mind. "Missed it. Loved it. I'm coming down."

He quickly hangs up after that. The conversation is making Brendon hard to think of a coherent sentence, along with one other kind of _hard_ , especially when his brain keeps supplying him with inappropriate images.

He finds Patrick by the entrance and runs over to him, jumping on his back to catch him by surprise. "Patrick!"

Patrick staggers under Brendon's weight, but twists his body around and tosses Brendon a can of soda. "You're heavy, dork. If you keep doing that, you're going to break my back one day."

"Oh, who's your friend?" Brendon asks when he notices Patrick's companion.

"Brendon, this is Pete," Patrick beams at him, then turns to the other man. "Pete, this is Brendon."

Brendon shakes his hand and smiles. Pete seems older than them, and Brendon still has that fear of anyone older than him. But if Patrick's comfortable with this Pete guy, then he supposes he can try and get used to his presence.

"Come on, let's get you something to eat," Patrick says to him, and they walk to Patrick's car. While they're catching up with each other, Brendon can't help but notice Patrick's hand in Pete's the entire time.

He pretends that that's not the reason why he feels an ache in his chest.

-

Brendon scoots further into the booth and tries his best to drown the noises out. He's currently at a club downtown, celebrating his friend's birthday. While Brendon's all for partying, he's just not feeling it tonight.

And as the music gets louder, so does the pounding in his head. He decides to call it a night before realizing that he came with his friend's car, and if he wants to go back early, he has to find someone else.

Well, it's a Friday night. There's no way Patrick's sleeping in early on a Friday night.

He nudges his friend and tells him that he's going home, to which he receives a drunken slur in return. Whatever. At least he tells someone.

When he steps outside the club, he immediately calls for his friend. It rings for a while, and Brendon's about to end the call and try again when Patrick finally picks up at the last second.

_"Bren? What is it?"_

"Oh, thank God you picked up!" Brendon cries out gratefully. "Where were you? No, wait, doesn't matter. Come pick me up, please? I just want to go back to my room and sleep the night away and I don't want to party anymore and I'm tired and _please_ pick me up?"

He's panting by the end of his rant, but when Patrick's laughing and asking for his location, he calms down and tells the name of the club, then waits for Patrick to pick him up.

It's not a surprise to Brendon when he sees Pete's car instead of Patrick's, but he gets in anyway, greeted by the cool air of the air-conditioner and a pack of chips.

"You're my life saver," Brendon says through a mouthful of chips. "Like, seriously, guys, I owe you. Just tell me what you want. Name it."

Patrick does that small, deep chuckle along with an amused glance that sends Brendon's heart racing every time. Even when it started off as a mere crush, it has turned into something more over the years, and Brendon takes pride that he can keep his feelings hidden from Patrick.

"What about pizza? Pizza's good. I'll buy you guys a pizza, is that okay?" Brendon offers, sliding into the middle seat and poking his head between the two seats in front.

"Make it two. Large. With sides." Pete answers, turning the car around the corner. "And I get to choose where you're buying the pizza."

Brendon makes a loud whining noise at Pete. He knows which place Pete has in mind. It's a famous pizzeria in town, and Brendon admits that they serve delicious pizzas, but _God_ how can one pizza costs _so much_?

"Fine," Brendon finally relents with a sigh, opening his wallet to check for cash. He supposes he can survive three or four days or a week with just instant noodles. "So, what were you guys doing before I called you? Watching movies?"

His answer is met with silence from the other two. He furrows his brows at their weird behaviour. Patrick starts to fidget in his seat, and Brendon scowls. "Oh, come on! You've never kept a secret-"

It's quiet, barely audibe, really, but Brendon swears he hear Patrick's small hitch of breath, and from the corner of his eyes, he can see Pete's knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel.

"What- _Oh. Oh my god._ "

Yeah, okay. Two large pizzas with sides at the most expensive pizzeria suddenly seem cheap to him.

-

Brendon groans as he hits his head on the steering wheel repeatedly. This isn't happening. _This isn't happening_. _This isn't happening_. He repeats the words like a mantra in his head.

There is no way he has a flat tire in the middle of nowhere.

He yells out loud in frustration and kicks the car door open, stomping over to where the problem is. He crouches down to inspect the tire before realizing that it's too dark out to see anything, even with his glasses on.

Letting out a grunt, he stands up and kicks the tire, howling in pain after. He massages his foot and sags against the side of his car. A glance at his watch tells him that it's already past midnight.

The shops are already closed by now. He's alone in the middle of nowhere, and he wants nothing more than to get back to the safety and warmth of his apartment and under his blanket. He fishes out his phone and calls the first person that comes into his mind.

"Patrick?"

There's a muffled noise on the other line. Brendon can only guess he has probably disturbed Patrick from sleeping.

_"Bren…?"_

He immediately feels guilty that he just woke Patrick up, and judging from another distinct voice over the speaker, he probably woke Pete up too.

_"Bren, are you okay?"_

The alarmed tone in Patrick's voice- which is still laden with sleep, makes Brendon smile. Patrick's the biggest mother-hen Brendon has ever known. Not even his mother can top him.

"I got a flat tire. And- I don't know, it's midnight, all the shops are closed and I don't have a spare and it's _fucking cold_ out here-" He begins to ramble, as he tends to do when he complains his problem to Patrick every time, and only stops when he hears a small laugh.

_"Where are you?"_

Patrick's a saviour. Really. He and Pete arrive half an hour later in Pete's car. Brendon climbs into the back seat, thanking and apologizing to them profusely. While Pete grumbles under his breath for being woken up in the middle of the night, Patrick offers him a bottle of water and a smile.

And everything is fine again, despite a dent in his wallet.

-

_"Brendon?"_

The person in question focuses his attention to the voice on his phone. Patrick's voice is quiet and lack its usual cheeriness, and Brendon knows something is wrong. "Patrick? Are you okay?"

A soft sniffle is heard, then a small chuckle. _"Nevermind. Sorry. You're probably busy."_

Before Brendon can ask another question, the line drops dead. He frowns at his phone. Something definitely happened to Patrick. He recalls back to the times when Patrick would come to his rescue with just a single phone call.

Patrick would let Brendon whine about all his troubles, then he would offer him a comforting smile and whatever food or drink he had at the moment. Patrick had done it since the first time they met. He didn't complain and didn't get angry, not even when Brendon had called him at the most inconvenient times.

So, this time, Brendon is determined to repay the favour.

The chair scraps against the floor of the cafe as Brendon stands from his seat, shoving all his stuff into his bag.

"Hey, where are you going?" A friend asks him, confused by the sudden action. "We need to study for our final paper tomorrow."

After he has finished packing everything, he turns to his group of friends with a beaming grin, who are all looking back at him in puzzlement.

"Sorry, guys. I'm going to save the day."

Without wasting another second, he runs out to his car, driving to the direction of Patrick's apartment. He makes a quick stop to the candy store and purchases two packets of Patrick's favourite snack.

He knocks on the door and bounces on the balls of his feet, waiting patiently for Patrick to open the door. He can't wait to see the surprised look on Patrick's face when he sees him.

He straightens his back when he hears the sound of the door knob being turned and holds his breath.

"Brendon?"

Brendon grins at the the expression on Patrick's face; it's just like he has expected. The grin quickly dwindles down to a small frown upon a closer inspection at Patrick's face.

"Patrick," Brendon begins, "have you been crying?"

"Of course not."

The frown on his face grows deeper. Patrick has definitely been crying.

Brendon closes and locks the door, then drags Patrick to the living room, pushing him down to the couch. He places the bag of candies next to him and turns to face the older man. "Patrick. Come on. You want to talk about something, right? That's why you called me."

When Patrick doesn't say anything, Brendon places a hand on his back and scoots closer. "You've always helped me before. Let me help you this time."

A sigh escapes Patrick, and Brendon pulls him to his side, rubbing his arm up and down soothingly.

"Pete and I broke up," Patrick murmurs. His voice is quiet, but Brendon hears him word for word. His hand on Patrick's arm stills.

Patrick's answer takes Brendon by surprise. He has always thought that they would end up getting married and living happily with one another. They've been together for more than three years, at least according to Brendon's knowledge. That was around the time he first met Pete. They had probably gotten together way before that. "What happened?"

Patrick shifts in his arms before resting his head on his shoulder. "Something about not wanting to be the second."

Brendon creases his forehead in confusion. What kind of reason is _that_? "What?"

Patrick sighs again and reaches over for the plastic bag that Brendon has set aside earlier. He rips a packet open and begins to chew on one of the black licorice.

" _Hey._ " Brendon tries to be firm with him, grabbing the packet before Patrick can take another. "No more until you tell me."

"He said he's tired of being the second to everything," Patrick mumbles, chewing on what's left of the licorice in his hand.

"What do you mean _second?_ Does he know you look at him like he hung the moon?" Brendon scowls, ready to kick Pete's ass for making Patrick sad, but the anger simmers down when he sees a small, rosy blush across Patrick's cheeks.

"Who uses _'hung the moon'_ nowadays, dork?" Patrick rolls his eyes, then extends his hand to take back the licorice from Brendon. Brendon gives him a look and keeps them out of Patrick's reach.

"Brendon!" Patrick whines.

"Patrick!" Brendon mocks back, ignoring Patrick's glare that is comparable to that of a kitten's. "I know you haven't finished telling the story."

He smirks when Patrick gives in with a defeated sigh. "He said I always put you first. Or something," Patrick mumbles the last part, hand resting across Brendon's lap from his previous failed attempt to get the candy.

Brendon droops a little, eyes gazing at his friend. He can't believe the reason they broke up is because of him. Now he feels bad for always calling Patrick for help. "Oh. Wow. Sorry."

"Don't be," Patrick says nonchalantly, then adds under his breath, "cockblocker."

Brendon bites his lips at the nickname before cracking up into a fit of laughter. "Oh, shut up! It was that one time! I didn't know you were getting it on with him!"

Just then, Patrick starts to laugh, not a giggle or a chuckle, but a full-blown laughter. And _Brendon_ made him laugh. Brendon grins and shoves Patrick to the end of the couch playfully, and walks across the room to boot up the Wii system, grabbing two controllers and walking back to the couch, handing one to Patrick.

"What better way to get over someone than some good ol' game, right?" Brendon grins at him and turns his attention to the screen in front of them.

"Licorice," Patrick quips as he bites on a new one that he grabs just as Brendon was walking to get the controllers. "And games. Yeah. We played Mario Kart the other day," Patrick adds. "Pete always won though. I tried to beat him, but it was almost impossible."

Brendon snorts disdainfully and nudges for Patrick to pick a character. "Well then. This is one way to kick his ass. What character did he usually use? We'll pulp that character to the fucking ground."

The game starts to count down, and as they're shoving each other in an attempt to distract the other, Brendon thinks back to the small blush adorning Patrick's face earlier.

_"He said I always put you first. Or something."_

Brendon knows Patrick always adds _or something_ at the end of his sentence when he's hiding something related to the previous statement, and from his red face, Brendon has a good guess as to what it is, and it sends a warmth of happiness all over him.

His feelings might not be one-sided after all.

He considers confessing his feelings right then, but when he thinks about it, they have all the time in the world. Brendon's not going anywhere, and neither is Patrick. He'll tell Patrick when the time is right.

For now, Brendon's content with where he stands with Patrick.

**Author's Note:**

> YOU SURVIVED A BRENTRICK FIC! 
> 
> I'm actually writing a new story, but ahhh writer's block happened, so have this instead.
> 
> Leave some comments!


End file.
